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How Many Wide Angle Lenses Do You ALREADY Have? Throughout the Pandemic I have indulged my lust for wide angles by purchasing inexpensive Chinese-made, manual focusing lenses with brand names like TTartisan, 7artisans, Meike, and Pergear. I actually went upscale once and purchased a Samyang lens, a 12mm F 2.0, due to its larger aperture. Metaphorically, I now own a closet full of four-dollar shoes,  adjusted for inflation.

Now a new lens, made by Laowa, has just caught my eye. Unlike the first four brands mentioned in the previous paragraph, lenses from this manufacturer can be found in some retail outlets. The reason is simple: Price. Laowa lenses tend to be better made and possess better optical design, and are therefore more expensive. Profits from sales could be enough to justify carrying them in stock. But a smart retailer would be wise to stay with lenses with focal lengths that are most likely to sell, steering clear of those who are too long, or too short.

This 10mm F 4.0 manually focused lens was purchased for several reasons:

• Size: The lens is compact: 2.4" in diameter, 1.0" tall.
• Filter Thread: The lens can accept a 37mm filter.
• Angle of Acceptance: 109 degree field of view.

Raison D'être: For many years I relied on a Fuji 10-24 F 4.0 as my go-to lens. Unfortunately, I tended to leave it at the 10mm setting, and in doing so, created many images that exhibited perspective distortion, or "stretch face", associated with extreme wide angle lenses and short shooting distances. I have since made the 16-55 F 2.8 lens my first choice, thus eliminating the ability to shoot at 10mm. With its shortest focal length of 16mm, it forces me to work at longer distances, reducing the possibility for conspicuous perspective distortion. At some point, I replaced the 10-24 with a 50-200mm zoom, thinking it a more versatile choice.

Judgement Day: Things went smoothly until Halloween 2022, when I found myself without an ultrawide lens. I needed it to capture several visual elements. and a 10mm would have been fine, if I had one. As luck would have it , I had a Pergear Fisheye, with which, through brute force, I managed to make a barely satisfactory image. "Brute force" is not hyperbole, since the lens had only three zones of focus (near, far, and farther) and a fixed aperture of F 8.0. The shot required adjustments to the ISO and subsequently the flash output settings to compensate for the fixed aperture.

In my mind, this would never have happened if I had a compact, emergency super-wide rectilinear (renders straight lines straight) lens stowed away in my camera bag as a backup. Ownership of this lens will forever eliminate the specter of not having a lens wide enough to use whenever unusual background-foreground perspectives must be addressed. Sounds suspiciously like I am rationalizing a pending acquisition.

Update: February 1, 2023: The lens arrived on time, and while I haven't spent a lot of time working with it. I did take it on an outing in Mill Valley,  Ken Rockwell's evaluation of the lens can be seen here.

The perspective distortion of this super-wide angle lens is apparent. However, the shot was made using estimating the subject-to-camera distance. At F 5.6 there was plenty of focusing depth to work with. Perhaps this will become my ultimate point-and-shoot.

I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of detail rendered by the lens. Even the moon appears reasonably sharp when the image is enlarged.

So far I've been satisfied with the performance, especially for a lens as wide as this. I must remind myself that it goes with me on location as an emergency lens, one that can be called upon when an extremely wide field of view is required.

I plan on taking it to the final Lunar New Year celebration in  Redwood City on the weekend of February 4. I plan to relying on the distance scale if I find actual focusing too difficult.

Bike Day In San Carlos

Several community organizations got together to present a kid-friendly workshop on bicycle safety. When I received the assignment, I thought about ways I could visually suggest the purpose of the event. When I saw the "Helmet Fitting" sign, I determined that this would be a good context detail. Now I just needed some faces to fill the photo out.

As luck would have it, a series of children with their parents started to parade past the station, and volunteer Robert checked each one, sometimes suggesting to a parent that it was time to get a new, larger helmet. When little Haley came along, a knew I had my subject. As Robert worked, I made dearly a dozen photos, occasionally changing my position to minimize background distractions. By shooting from a low angle I was able to use the empty sky as neutral background,

I had a chance to talk with Robert about my camera selection. Initially he thought my Fuji T-2 was a DSLR since the Fuji's T series of cameras have that characteristic hump. After explaining that the T-2 was indeed a mirrorless camera, I resumed shooting. When I was sure my shot was "in the can", I thanked the volunteers and headed home.

Read Ken Rockwell's Evaluation here.

Bug's Eye View: On the way home, I thought about Robert's mistaking my camera for an SLR, and consequently, how my approach has changed since switching to the T series of camera. I had used Fuji's earlier E Series bodies when I starting moving away from my Nikon DSLRs. The the real changes came when I moved up to the T series cameras. The feature that most changed my shooting style was the reticulated LCD panel. It allows me to make photos from pavement level to give me a clean, blue-sky background. As you can see, the technique helped me minimize the background clutter while also minimizing the difference in height of the two subjects.

Shadow Reduction: I usually use a camera-mounted flash to fill the shadows. When working with people wearing baseball caps, a shadow from the visor will usually appear across the subject's face ending just below the eyes. In many cases this can be eliminated by having the wearer push the cap to the back of their head, but impractical if one's subjects are active or facing into the sun. The solution is simple: I simply hold the camera upside down so the lighting comes from below. It usually works fine on the first try, but sometimes shadows can be cast in places you wouldn't expect, so you have to be careful.

You can see in this cropped sample that the light neatly filled Haley's face. The only clue to flash placement is the shadow along the top edge of Robert's right sleeve, although I don't think anybody would have notice had I not called it to your attention.

Low Angle Composition: One final trick you can add to your bag: To facilitate an accurate composition when "flying inverted", simply flip your reticulated LCD panel as you would when shooting in the "Hail Mary" overhead position. Now you can easily control your composition and monitor the expressions of your subjects. When I have time, I explain what I'm doing to my subjects, and more importantly, why. This gives me some professional credibility, and allows them to completely ignore my unconventional shooting technique.

Arrived on time, made the shot in ten minutes, then headed home. Good day.

7artisans Auto Focus Lens

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Fuji Pancake: A while back, I noted that Fuji saw fit to re-introduce its 27mm 2.8 pancake lens with a dedicated lens hood, weather sealing, and an external aperture ring. I've owned my earlier version for a number of years, and have taken to carrying it as a backup lens for my primary Fuji kit bag. I reasoned that if both of my zoom lenses conked out at the same time on the same assignment, I would have a compact normal-ish lens that would work on either the T1 or T2 bodies. It also rides with my  secondary kit, where it could replace the 60mm F 1.2 lens that normally rides with my X-S10 for a more normal outlook if my X-100T should fall ill. It would be nice to have a second backup lens so I wouldn't have to re-deploy the original Fuji when switching kit bags.

A Second Backup Lens? I already have a Meike 28mm F 2.8 lens which I've used daily since I purchased it in April of 2022. I have been extremely happy with the lens, although it definitely is not as sharp as my Fuji 27mm. I have used the lens almost daily since I got it. and find that the focal length is well suited for most normal photography. While it might be suitable as a backup lens, I am fearful that I might might miss a critical shot if I forgot to manually focus the lens. Count on it, when you realize that you'll need to switch to your backup lens, you'll likely be in your panic mode. I can see myself forgetting to focus the lens, and sheepishly requesting a re-shoot when the results were less than optimal.

I am not a big fan of "chatty" lens evaluations, this video by Richard Wong was very thorough, although not quite as concise as the postings of Christopher Frost.  However, I did learn from Mr. Wong that the 7artisans lens takes the same lens hood as the Fuji, a minor saving. 

Considering the compact size and the auto-focusing capability, I think I can justify purchasing the lens as a backup. It is cheap enough, and the fact that I won't have to worry about focusing are definitely appealing.

If and when the purchase is made, you'll see some samples.

Addendum: A different shiny object caught my attention. This Meike pancake is now on the back burner.

Welcome 2023

We have been pummeled by rain and wind since the beginning of the new year. Today was a welcomed break in the weather, and some sunlight was seen from time to time. I ventured out to buy some band-aids, camera on my neck, hoping against hope that some moment of divine light would part the clouds as I approached a worthy subject. About all I could find was the Christmas wreath decorating the grate on this home on Seventeenth Street. 

Apparently the group Wolf Alice performed on October 17, 2022 at the Fillmore here in the City. An on-line searched showed that there were no scheduled dates for 2023 in the Bay Area. So why is this "vintage" poster sitting on a smart gas meter in Cole Valley?